Shotgun nearly prevents wedding: An unemployed man from el-Minya tried to kill his paternal cousin, who works in Maadi, Helwan Governorate, because he'd got engaged to the girl that the former loved. Having been shot in the chest, stomach and arms, his victim was rushed to Qasr el-Aini Hospital for treatment. Amazingly, he has pulled through. The gunman, who was arrested, has admitted everything. As well as his shotgun, police have confiscated a number of knives from him. His victim, 20-year-old Abdel- Nasser Atta, works in Zahraa el-Maadi. He'd refused to back off from the girl they were both interested in, when asked to by his 23- year-old cousin. The suspect bought the gun in el-Minya, before coming up to the capital and blasting Abdel-Nasser as he emerged from his flat in the morning, to go to work. He planned to flee home to Upper Egypt, thinking he'd killed his cousin, but he was caught in Maadi before he could do so. A quarter of a million: Police have arrested three young people on suspicion of robbing a number of jewellers'. The suspects, a 27-year-old housewife and two unemployed men aged 34 and 25, would go into jewellery shops, distract the owner and steal what valuables they could. The thieves admitted stealing gold jewellery worth around LE250,000 from nine different shops, located all quite close together in el-Sharabia near Ramses and Rod el-Farag and el-Sahel in Shubra. It was the housewife who spearheaded the gang of three. Death-dealing dealer:Afew days ago, this column reported that a man in el-Moqattam tortured his son to death, because he suspected him of stealing LE400 that the boy's paternal uncle had lost. Since then, there has been a chillingly similar case in el-Marg, northern Cairo. In this case, the victim had actually been thieving. When a 50-year-old scrap metal dealer called Samir el-Shaarawi discovered that his eight-year-old son had stolen LE100, he tied him up to the bed with the washing line and clubbed him, in order to discipline him. When the lad lapsed into unconsciousness, his father took him to hospital, where he died. Staff at the One Day Hospital were suspicious about the injuries that killed little Mohamed Samir, so they called in the police, who questioned Samir. The latter admitted punishing his son, because he was angry that he'd stolen the money from him. Anasty shock:Awoman living in Darb el- Sahareej, a district of el-Khalifa, southern Cairo, was in for a nasty shock when she got home from the market. Her husband had gone to work and she'd popped out to buy a few groceries. When she returned to the flat, smoke was billowing from the windows and the fire brigade were battling the flames. The couple's two children, whom she'd left asleep in their bedroom, were burnt to death in the fire, which started in the few minutes that their 27-year-old mother was out. Neighbours had tried to save the toddlers, but they were beaten back by the flames. She herself leapt into the fire to try and safe little Mohamed and Mona Ezzat (aged three and two). Fireman had to rescue the poor women and she was taken to hospital in a hysterical state, in order to be treated for the burns she'd sustained.
